“What makes you think she’ll listen to me?”
Roy snorted. “I think we both know why she’ll listen to you.” My neck got hot and itchy. He wasn’t talking about the crush. Right? No, he just meant our friendship.
“Yeah, well, six years is a long time.”
“Son, you’re going to learn, in the course of a lifetime, six years is nothing. You want her to be happy, don’t you?”
Pleasing Nora Barnes had been my life’s mission since I was fifteen years old and she made me play tea party with her and her dolls.
“Sure. Of course. What’s your second thing?”
Roy stepped closer like he was going to push me against the truck and it was such an intimidating move I couldn’t stop myself from taking a step back.
“Break her heart again and I will end you, Nick.”
“Break her heart…what are you talking-”
“I saw you on the boat when she had that can of ginger ale. I saw the way you looked at her. I see the way you sit up every time someone says her name. And now she’s working with you. Every day at that garage. She’s a woman now and you’re noticing.”
“I swear I’m…” I said, but I honestly couldn’t finish that sentence.
“Yeah,” he laughed with such menace I actually got chills down my spine. “That’s what I thought. I get it wasn’t your fault, but you destroyed her. Worse than that fucker in France and I’m not having your bullshit drive my daughter away from her home again. So, promise me Nick. Let’s hear it.”
I swallowed down the bile in my throat. Arguing wouldn’t get me anywhere with this man. I could only give him what he wanted. Needed.
“I won’t break her heart,” I swore.
“Good man,” he said, and slapped me on the shoulder so hard I fell into my truck. He left and I felt like that kid I’d been the first time I met him. Seen too clearly for my own comfort. Terrified to disappoint him.
I hopped into my truck and shut the door.
Fuck. I had been looking at her differently. And I was…attuned to what people were saying about her. But it wasn’t anything more than friendship. I was sure of it. Convinced.
I wouldn’t break her heart. I would rather break my own arm than hurt her like that again. And she wasn’t giving me any clues that she was slipping back into feeling more than friendship for me.
No. Nora and I were good. Solid.
As for the other thing… the videos. Roy wasn’t wrong. She’d been happy connecting with people through social media. Telling her stories, sharing experiences. And now that it was gone, her light seemed dim.
Checking to make sure everyone had already left, I pulled out my phone. It hadn’t really been a lie. I wasn’tonsocial media. I had an account without a name or a picture and I followed one person, saving all her videos.
I tapped on one of my favorites.
She sat in a street café, the blue sky behind her. She wore a yellow scarf and red lipstick that made her look sophisticated and sexy.
This is how you spend a morning in Paris. You order a coffee and then you sit at a table and just drink it. From an actual cup. No paper to-go cups. No spilling it down your shirt while you’re trying to navigate the metro and drink your coffee at the same time. This is what it means to just be in the moment. Enjoy the morning. With a quality cappuccino. Oh, pro tip, when you’re in France they put cocoa in the cappuccino. Not sure why, but if you want it without it, you have to say ‘pas du chocolate ou sans du chocolate’. They’ll understand. Mmmm.
The video stopped. Her eyes were closed, the cup was still at her lips. I could almost feel how delicious it was. How special that instant in time was for her. That was her magic. The way she pulled you inside, into her life.
Intimacy.
There was no other way to describe it. When you watched a Nora video she made you feel like you knew her. Like she knew you. Like you were friends.
Like maybe more than friends. Like if you were there, you could lean forward and kiss that foam from her gorgeous red lips.
Fuck.
I did a quick swipe to close the app. My addiction once again hidden. I drove away from the lighthouse like I was trying to escape.
